Oregon’s Sunriver Music Festival Opener Sells Out
Bend, Oregon’s Sunriver Music Festival invited us to perform for their festival opening concert in August 2015. For their season theme “America the Beautiful,” the festival programmed our Grand Canyon Country multimedia piece to accompany Ferde Grofé’s celebrated Grand Canyon Suite.
Sunriver Music Director George Hanson was instrumental in the 2012 co-commission of Grand Canyon Country by The Phoenix Symphony along with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the centennial of Arizona’s statehood. The commission involved six photographic trips to the Grand Canyon and its iconic surroundings, including a nine-day shoot of the majestic canyon from below on a raft in the Colorado River.
Speaking before the festival’s concert, Hanson called our multimedia piece “one of the most stunning depictions of nature you will ever see.” The audience in Bend—which filled the festival’s venue to capacity—seemed to agree, with applause between each movement and an enthusiastic call for encore.
Pam Beezley, Sunriver’s executive director, said of the performance, “I cannot tell you how many people have told our staff over and over how much they loved the pops concert. They were blown away with the Grand Canyon Suite.”
The concert program also featured a mix of well-known American and patriotic music with several uplifting works performed by Clyde Thompson’s choir, the Central Oregon Mastersingers.
Now in its 38th season, Sunriver Music Festival draws musicians to beautiful central Oregon from across the country and internationally for its summer concert series.
